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46608d admin 2025-06-20 22:38:15 1 
# GPU Acceleration
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c08ec2 admin 2025-06-20 23:24:43 3
## Firefox Hardware Video Acceleration
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### Configuring the nvidia-vaapi-driver
a96470 admin 2025-06-23 00:48:19 5
As of Debian 13 (Trixie) it is now fairly easy to configure VAAPI hardware video acceleration as this release ships with an updated version of the `nvidia-vaapi-driver`. The only package that needs to be manually installed now is the `nvidia-driver`.
46608d admin 2025-06-20 22:38:15 6
a96470 admin 2025-06-23 00:48:19 7
Tested working packages:
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- nvidia-driver v570.169 (manually installed without the package manager)
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- nvidia-vaapi-driver v0.0.13
c08ec2 admin 2025-06-20 23:24:43 10
- firefox-esr v128.11
13014c admin 2025-06-23 00:49:29 11
- vainfo v2.22
a96470 admin 2025-06-23 00:48:19 12
13014c admin 2025-06-23 00:49:29 13
In the future when the Debian repository ships a newer release of the `nvidia-driver` make sure you also have the `libnvidia-encode1` package installed (this package already comes with the manually installed `nvidia-driver`).
a96470 admin 2025-06-23 00:48:19 14
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Ensure you have the following kernel parameters set for the `nvidia-driver`:
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`/etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf`
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```
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options nvidia-drm modeset=1
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```
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If this parameter is not currently set you will have to rebuild initramfs and reboot:
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```
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sudo mkinitramfs -u
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sudo reboot
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```
c08ec2 admin 2025-06-20 23:24:43 27
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Once you have installed the packages above you can verify `nvidia-vaapi-driver` is working by running `vainfo`:
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```
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user@debian:~$ vainfo
a96470 admin 2025-06-23 00:48:19 31
Trying display: wayland
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Trying display: x11
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error: can't connect to X server!
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Trying display: drm
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libva info: VA-API version 1.22.0
c08ec2 admin 2025-06-20 23:24:43 36
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/nvidia_drv_video.so
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libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_0
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libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
a96470 admin 2025-06-23 00:48:19 39
vainfo: VA-API version: 1.22 (libva 2.22.0)
c08ec2 admin 2025-06-20 23:24:43 40
vainfo: Driver version: VA-API NVDEC driver [direct backend]
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vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
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VAProfileMPEG2Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
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VAProfileMPEG2Main : VAEntrypointVLD
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VAProfileVC1Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
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VAProfileVC1Main : VAEntrypointVLD
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VAProfileVC1Advanced : VAEntrypointVLD
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VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointVLD
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VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointVLD
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VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointVLD
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VAProfileHEVCMain : VAEntrypointVLD
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VAProfileVP8Version0_3 : VAEntrypointVLD
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VAProfileVP9Profile0 : VAEntrypointVLD
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VAProfileAV1Profile0 : VAEntrypointVLD
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VAProfileHEVCMain10 : VAEntrypointVLD
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VAProfileHEVCMain12 : VAEntrypointVLD
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VAProfileVP9Profile2 : VAEntrypointVLD
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VAProfileHEVCMain444 : VAEntrypointVLD
a96470 admin 2025-06-23 00:48:19 58
VAProfileHEVCMain444_10 : VAEntrypointVLD
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VAProfileHEVCMain444_12 : VAEntrypointVLD
c08ec2 admin 2025-06-20 23:24:43 60
```
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Here we are looking to see that the driver has loaded without errors and that we are using the `[direct backend]`. If the driver is defaulting to the`[egl backend]` you can force it to use `direct` by setting the following environment variable:
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```
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export NVD_BACKEND=direct
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```
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### Configuring Firefox
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Before launching Firefox I recommend setting the following environment variable in your terminal to enable NV logging:
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```
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export NVD_LOG=1
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```
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Now launch Firefox using the following parameters:
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```
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MOZ_DISABLE_RDD_SANDBOX=1 firefox
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```
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In Firefox you will need to set the `media.ffmpeg.vaapi.enabled` option to `true` in the `about:config` page:
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![](./image-1750461112849.png)
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Now close Firefox and restart using the same command. To verify that video hardware decoding is working you can play a YouTube video and check the output of `nvidia-smi`:
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```
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user@debian:~$ nvidia-smi
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Fri Jun 20 19:14:17 2025
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+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
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| NVIDIA-SMI 570.169 Driver Version: 570.169 CUDA Version: 12.8 |
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|-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
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| GPU Name Persistence-M | Bus-Id Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
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| Fan Temp Perf Pwr:Usage/Cap | Memory-Usage | GPU-Util Compute M. |
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| | | MIG M. |
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|=========================================+========================+======================|
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| 0 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Off | 00000000:06:00.0 On | Off |
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| 0% 38C P2 80W / 450W | 1090MiB / 24564MiB | 5% Default |
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| | | N/A |
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+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
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+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
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| Processes: |
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| GPU GI CI PID Type Process name GPU Memory |
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| ID ID Usage |
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|=========================================================================================|
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| 0 N/A N/A 989 G /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg 317MiB |
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| 0 N/A N/A 33599 G alacritty 29MiB |
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| 0 N/A N/A 40272 G ...ler --variations-seed-version 48MiB |
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| 0 N/A N/A 42045 G alacritty 15MiB |
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| 0 N/A N/A 49174 G alacritty 15MiB |
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| 0 N/A N/A 52330 G firefox-esr 130MiB |
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| 0 N/A N/A 55294 C+G /usr/lib/firefox-esr/firefox-esr 423MiB |
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+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
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```
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We are looking for a Firefox process with a `Type` or either `C` or `C+G`.
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You can also use `nvidia-smi pmon` to show the usage of the decode engine:
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```
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user@debian:~$ nvidia-smi pmon
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# gpu pid type sm mem enc dec jpg ofa command
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# Idx # C/G % % % % % % name
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0 49174 G - - - - - - alacritty
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0 52330 G 0 0 - - - - firefox-esr
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0 55294 C+G 1 0 - 4 - - firefox-esr
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0 989 G 1 0 - - - - Xorg
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0 33599 G - - - - - - alacritty
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0 40272 G - - - - - - chrome --type=g
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0 42045 G - - - - - - alacritty
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```
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I had to bump up the video quality to 1080p@60 for it to show a usage greater than 0%.
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### References
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- https://wiki.debian.org/Firefox#Nvidia
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- https://github.com/elFarto/nvidia-vaapi-driver